Diggers: The Sharp Edge of the Universe (4 page)

In fact, Finn couldn’t think of a single Digger who worked a normal, daytime shift unless they were on a discovery mission with the Scientists.

Reggie’s presence allowed them plenty of room in the cramped hover. The rest of the travelers squeezed as far away from the Digger boys as possible, their ugly brown suits acted like a beacon letting everyone know they were the lowest form of life on the Space Station.

Finn watched the flicker of lights as the hover zoomed all over the Space Station. Lucky for him, Reggie didn't talk much. Finn could be alone with his thoughts, even with dozens of other people crammed around him.

Why did it have to be Mikayla? Why couldn’t it have been one of the Scientists—or any other person on the Space Station? Finn had daydreamed so many times of Mr. Fishborne putting him in charge of the entire Science Lab, and knighting him Sir Finn, Keeper of the Lab Slides. He’d dreamed of giving orders to the Scientists and receiving a pat on the back by Mr. Fishborne for yet another job well done. He would scrutinize every slide, and judiciously decide which to keep and which to throw away—unlike Mikayla’s sloppy, uncaring approach.

Watching Mikayla pick her way through all of those precious slides made Finn feel violated. She'd been exposed as the intruder Finn fought against. The horrid, evil girl actually considered a microscope slide trash. He should have known. Only a self-centered
girl
would be stupid enough to not know the difference between trash and something truly valuable.

After twenty minutes of standing in the hover and waiting for everyone to be dropped off at their level, the hover finally came to a slow, perfect stop at the Dock Level, the lowest point of
Vortex
.

Reggie and Finn made their way through the maze of space vehicles and planetary landing vehicles to a small cubbyhole once used as a storage room, the only space available for the Digger classes. Finn wedged his way in behind Reggie, and they headed for the only two open spaces in the back, on what once had been used as a storage shelf. Finn hopped on the shelf, pulled out his computer pad, and pushed Mikayla out of his thoughts.

Ignoring Quinn’s shock, he placed his computer pad in hover mode while he searched for a stylus. Quinn pushed through the mass of huge bodies and pulled Finn close. “Glad you made it, Noodle. You’d best be here every day from now on, or Mom and Dad won’t be the only ones you have to deal with.”

Finn shrugged Quinn’s meat-hook hands off his shoulders and got comfortable. Quinn had threatened him millions of times, but Finn knew Quinn would get in big trouble if he laid a hand on him.

But deep down his “couldn’t care less” attitude covered over a spark of doubt. Even with the bully implant, big brothers could still find ways to make a small kid’s life miserable.

Chapter 6: Field Trip of Death

“You are all in for a treat!” Their fossil of a teacher, Kirk T. James, spat all over the first two rows of kids, marking the beginning of the class. Quinn gave Finn one last warning glare and shuffled through the chairs to take his place next to Mr. James. “
Vortex
will be excavating the new planet Takkaur, and Diggers will be the first to set foot on it. This is the perfect opportunity for a little field trip to the digging site so that we can watch the first discoveries.”

Finn felt sorry for the bony old man for getting his information wrong. The entire universe knew that the Scientists made the discoveries, but Diggers tended to think of themselves as more important than they really were. Finn shoved away the familiar wave of embarrassment that hit him every time the Diggers pretended to be important, and tried to focus on the prize of a field trip.

Hoots and hollers exploded around the room. Finn grinned and nudged Reggie. Field trips were the
best
. The last time Finn left the Space Station had been ten months ago when his family had taken a vacation to the Pi Quadrant. They’d played on the blood red beaches of Nalia and swam in the fresh-water ocean.

The best part of the trip happened when Quinn had been dragged into the ocean by a Cornethian Sheila, a semi-aquatic humanoid with parasitic fish for hair, long webbed feet, and the biggest, fattest lips he’d ever seen—lips that looked just like Quigley’s round, puckered mouth. The Sheila thought Quinn would make the perfect mate and seemed determined to take him home. Finn remembered laughing until he choked on his frosty. It had been worth spraying frosty out of his nose to get to watch his mom and dad try to beat the tentacles off Quinn, who screamed so high Finn thought he might break glass.

“The Science Journeymen trainees have agreed to join us on the field trip,” Mr. James announce, giving the class his best smile, void of teeth.

The cheers quickly turned into boos, and Finn slumped over his floating computer pad. A sudden vision of unfeeling, robotic Mikayla tossing all the good slides into the trash box felt like a gravity suit pressing on his chest. Mikayla and her cronies would arrive in their perfect red uniforms and show off, naming all of the items from past discoveries before anyone in the Diggers class had a similar chance to show off. Of course, none of his classmates could name a single item.

Diggers dig.

“We’ll leave tomorrow evening at five o’clock sharp,” Mr. James said when
the boos
began to die down. “I expect you all to act like proud, honorable Diggers during the field trip!”

“Bet you won’t miss tomorrow’s class, Noodle,” Angelina Motsenbocker said. Zit-faced and massive with wild orange curly hair, she gave Finn’s foot a sharp nudge. She knew better than anyone else how far she could go with physical pain and not receive a jolt from the bully sensor.

“Rock, please turn around,” Mr. James said to Angelina.

Angelina had the most muscles of any Digger in his class, so of course that made her teacher’s pet.

“Oh, sorry, sir.
Noodle was just having some problems with all the class work he’s missed, so I thought I’d help him out.” She flashed her sweetest smile, which made her look like a rabid Rottweiler.

“Very kind of you, Rock, very kind, indeed.
But let’s allow each student to pass or
fail
on their own.” Mr. James stared at Finn. “Shall we?”

Finn and Reggie were the first kids to escape the moment Mr. James announced the end of class. They walked to the hover and waited for an eternity before it finally stopped at the Dock Level.

“Going tomorrow?” Reggie studied the safety manual Mr. James had asked everyone to memorize.

“Definitely,” Finn said, and they piled onto the hover.

At the last second, Jasper sauntered onto the hover and turned to face the closing doors.

“Your cat.”
Reggie gestured toward Jasper, who got busy licking his paws and cleaning his face.

Finn scooped up Jasper, and the cat immediately began to purr. “What have you been doing?”

Jasper nudged Finn on the chin and closed his eyes.

Reggie petted Jasper while the cat slept in Finn’s arms during the entire ride up to the housing decks.

“Good evening, Mr. Finnigan O’Reilly,” ELAINA’s smooth voice greeted.

Finn walked into his room and plopped Jasper onto his favorite wad of bed covers. He only had twenty minutes to salvage whatever slides Mikayla had decided were trash before his parents and brother came home. But after the news about the field trip, he felt too excited to worry about microscope slides today. Taking a seat next to the cat, he stroked Jasper and imagined what new discoveries the Science team might find during the field trip. Maybe they’d find a new metal, or another fossil of some alien animal.

Finn imagined himself in a crimson Science suit pulling the fossil out of the dirt and raising it high into the air. He could hear Mikayla’s scream from her perch alongside the rest of the students, then he'd get to watch her run onto the transport, crying of course. Her father would pat Finn on the back and ask him what he wanted to name his amazing new discovery.

“Quiglimaraus,” he whispered.

Finn imagined himself throwing his hands into the air in triumph, just like his Digger friends would do, and walking side by side with Lee Fishborne into the nearest transport, which would rush him and the new discovery back to
Vortex
for photos with Captain Windblown.

“Come here, Quig.” Finn flopped back onto the pillows.
“How ‘bout a Quiglimaraus for my first discovery?”

Quigley and his fish bowl bobbed slowly up and down over Finn’s chest. Jasper opened one eye long enough to watch Quigley swim a few laps around his fish bowl, then tucked his head into his paws for a long nap.

Finn wasn’t sure when he’d fallen asleep, but when ELAINA
blared
his favorite music he jumped out of bed, slamming his head into Quigley’s fish bowl, still hovering above his chest. Water splashed everywhere. Finn grabbed the nearest wad of clothes and sopped up the water while his head throbbed to the beat of the song. Every Digger uniform he owned lay in dirty piles, so he just kept the wet one on and left his room.

“Hey, Noodle. We’re having you for dinner.” Quinn laughed at his boring joke, just like he did every spaghetti night.

Finn laughed too, which made Quinn stop in amazement. Finn reached for his own bowl and slurped in as much he could in one mouthful.

“Wow, Nood. Maybe you’ll actually grow,” Quinn said.

“Unk…Mackbee.” Finn forced the words past the wad of noodles in his mouth.

Quinn eyed Finn for a long moment, then shrugged and jammed a forkful of noodles down his throat. For the first time ever, Finn grabbed his empty plate and slammed it into the sink before Quinn finished eating.

“See yuh, Bear,” Finn said as the door whooshed open.

“What the…” Finn heard Quinn say as the door slid shut.

He waited for Reggie at their regular place in front of the Science Lab window. Before they headed for the Dock Level, Finn took a quick glance to see how far Mikayla had made it through her trash-fest.
Hmm.
Through the P’s.
He’d have to break into the Science Lab tonight before his mom made the trash permanent.

Reggie had arrived early—the only indication he might be excited about the field trip too. They caught the hover and lined up at the Discovery Utility Mechanical Pod before most of their classmates arrived.

“There’s no way I’m taking a DUMP,” Mikayla’s annoying voice boomed from behind them.

Her knot of friends fell into a clump of giggles and pointed at the old wreck of a DUMP.

Finn turned to make a comment when Mr. James wobbled up to Mikayla and said, “Oh, you won’t be traveling to the surface in the DUMP with us, dear. You’ll be taking a FaRT with the other Science crew.”

Mr. James pointed to the perfect, gleaming Find and Recover Transport.

Finn grabbed onto Reggie in a fit of laughter and choked on his gum mid-laugh. Reggie smacked him hard, and his gum went whizzing past Mikayla’s head and stuck to the side of the gleaming new FaRT.

“You’re lucky that didn’t hit me.” Mikayla pointed to the wad of gum.

“Bad luck is more like it,” he said when he could breathe again. “Thanks, Reg, you saved my life,”

“Sure,” Reggie said.

“Hope Mikayla doesn't make us have to cancel the trip because of a FaRT,” Finn added, loud enough for her to turn around and give him another crusty glare. “Do you think dirty looks are a requirement for girls?”

Reggie shrugged.

The boys climbed onto the old DUMP and strapped in to the seats near the front window. Beyond the glass Finn saw a beautiful new DUMP with a gleaming auger untouched by dirt sitting in the corner of the loading bay. He wished they’d be riding the new DUMP and not this pathetic thing.

“Well, Noodle! Nice to see you made it to a field trip. Hey, tell Gus we’re on for the holopoker game tomorrow, will yuh?” Farley Farrell, his dad’s best friend, swiveled around in the captain’s seat and gave Finn a wide, toothless grin.

“Heya, Belch,” Finn said.

Belch was a monster of a man. His massive frame was one of the few bodies to actually rival his father’s in size. Both were gigantic men, but Belch didn’t stop there. He had mounds of fat and rolls of skin, and he had to be by far the smelliest person on the
SS Vortex
.

“Oh…no….” Reggie’s eyes widened.

“Ah, don’t worry. I’ll get you to the surface in one piece.” Belch laughed as Reggie shook his head so hard Finn thought it might roll off.

“Don’t worry, Reg. He won’t let it happen again.” As Finn patted Reggie on the back, Reggie practically jumped out of his skin. Finally, Reggie made a break for the door, but it closed before he could wriggle out of his seatbelt.

It was one of those stories destined to be told for generations. Finn had skipped class, so he didn't witness the incident firsthand, but Quinn had told the story at the dinner table every night for a week. Reggie’s story had even made it to the fourth page of the
NewsPad
.

“Reginald Waddington, 13, was taken to the medical deck today after his head had to be removed from the window of a Discovery Utility Mechanical Pod (DUMP). The DUMP, driven by Digger Farley Farrell, began to spiral when it hit the atmosphere of Taquanna Three. Luckily, Farrell pulled out of the spiral and avoided crashing. Except for a nasty headache, Reginald will be fine. The DUMP will only need the front view screen replaced.”